The main purpose of this paper is to point out a new approach in evaluating the preparedness of the population of a selected city for civil protection and its response to emergencies. Using new approaches, it evaluates a subjective questionnaire survey in combination with the objective state thanks to a mathematical approach and its subsequent verification on a specific example. The proposed approaches are then verified by experimental surveys in the selected city. The result is a highly adaptable tool that can be set up and adapted to different situations and different types of questionnaires to address the preparedness and safety of the population for emergencies. Thanks to this tool, it is possible to evaluate the subjective opinions of the population and thus gain insight into the assessment of the city’s preparedness for emergencies. Subsequently, we can set the prevention and preparedness of the population in the city on the basis of the obtained outputs, which potentially has a fundamental influence on the response after the occurrence of an emergency. Improving preparedness in the area of civil protection shall not only be reflected in the response and minimization of the consequences of the emergency, but also in the emotional security of the population.

Today’s modern society offers many new opportunities, but also many risks. Even modernization of companies cannot completely eliminate these dangers. In the smart industry, despite significant technological progress, it is necessary to work with various raw materials, including hazardous substances. It is these raw materials that will continue to pose risks in the future for industrial accidents, which cannot be ruled out. The possible release of hazardous substances can potentially have a negative impact on the environment and safety of the population. In order to deal with certain emergencies, it is necessary to allocate a large amount of funds and resources to them. The paper focuses on risk prevention in industry and the use of modern and new approaches. Specifically, it focuses on the implementation of the prevention of leakage of hazardous substances in the gaseous state from industrial facilities. The aim of the paper is to present a new approach to the prevention of leakage of hazardous substances, which provides more realistic calculations for modeling leaks and thus helps to reduce the cost of prevention. However, security in crisis management is not diminished. ALOHA CAMEO software was used for leak modeling, which the authors commonly use in practical applications and modeling in industrial enterprises in the performance of duties in the field of civil protection and crisis management. ALOHA software is used for such modeling, serving as a support tool for modeling for all crisis managers in Industry 4.0. This paper deals with the modeling of dispersion of hazardous substances with specific properties escaping from technological equipment located inside a building. This concerns the inability of the current dispersion model software to prevent the spread of the next leak inside the building containing the substance. A solution is needed to fix this problem. This issue is well illustrated by a specific example at the end of this article. The mentioned improvement of tools for simulation of industrial accidents influences the possibilities of development also in Industry 4.0. It enables more effective preparation for the management of possible accidents with regard to the appropriate spending of funds for prevention and subsequent response.

The issue of environmental risk assessment currently deserves great attention. In order to protect the environment, maintain healthy living conditions, and prevent environmental damage, the member states of the European Union have adopted a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on environmental liability with regard to the prevention and remedying of environmental damage. The directive classifies two types of operators with different liability regimes for environmental damage, namely, the regime with no-fault (strict) liability and liability for fault. With the adoption of the directive, among experts, operators and the general public have posed questions about how to assess the risk of environmental damage. At present, there is still no uniform procedure for assessing environmental risks, which would create a comprehensive methodological framework for assessment for this type of risk. Due to the non-existent risk assessment methodology for operators with strict liability regimes and the lack of a systematic search for risk sources, a risk assessment procedure is proposed that provides guidance in a sequence of several steps on how to implement the obligations arising from the adopted Environmental Liability Directive. The proposed procedure was verified on a specific operator with a strict liability regime. The environmental risk analysis performed through the proposed procedure provided information on possible operational problems and verified its applicability. Last but not least, the use of the proposed procedure makes it possible to identify serious sources of risk and to establish necessary preventive measures to prevent the occurrence of environmental damage.

This paper focuses on the testing and evaluation of special anti-chemical protective suits. The testing and evaluation focused on the subjective aspect of the protective suits, which is best perceived by their wearers; however, the subjective aspect only accounts for a certain proportion of the overall evaluation. For this reason, the proposed objective evaluation criteria are also presented in the thesis. Four types of anti-chemical protective suits were selected for testing. In this way, it was possible to compare their design specificities. An older type of civil protection suit and three modern types were selected for evaluation. Multi-criteria decision making and the expert method were used to develop the criteria. Mathematical relationships were used to evaluate the test results. A methodological procedure was developed to integrate the established subjective criteria in order to test. The results of the testing confirmed the construction and design advances of the protective suits over the older type of civil protection suit. At the same time, they pointed out possible shortcomings in the work and execution of the movements of the individual selected protective suits. By evaluating the data obtained, the most suitable protective suit was selected that best met the subjective criteria. However, these results need to be supplemented by an assessment of the objective criteria in the final evaluation. This paper also presents the characteristics of the selected protective suits in terms of technical parameters and objective criteria. The results of the study can further serve as a complementary way of evaluating the quality of protective suits. It is the subjective evaluation that is essential in a comprehensive assessment of the quality of protective suits, as the user himself often perceives the quality of the product differently from the manufacturer.

Water management systems play a crucial role in efficiently allocating water resources while taking into account various demands such as agriculture, industry, domestic use, and environmental needs. These systems optimize the distribution of water, ensuring fair access and minimizing water scarcity and conflicts. However, these critical systems are vulnerable to different types of attacks. Depending on the target, these attacks can take the form of physical, cyber, or combined assaults. The protection requirements for water objects, which are integral to critical infrastructure, are primarily defined by legal regulations, technical standards, and other third party requirements. These requirements necessitate the implementation of protective measures. One effective approach to implementing protective measures is through a physical protection system (PPS), which prevents unauthorized individuals from achieving their objectives. The current procedures for protecting these objects can be based on either a qualitative or quantitative approach. In this article, we present a use case that demonstrates a possible method for protecting a specific water reservoir, identified as a national element of critical infrastructure in the Drinking Water Provision subsector. The use case involves analyzing security requirements and designing a PPS for the water reservoir. To assess the effectiveness of the proposed PPS, a quantitative PPS model was developed using specialized software. Additionally, four potential attack scenarios were simulated to verify the functionality of the PPS.

The research presented in paper has focused on design of the transportation evacuation during a special flood caused by an accident at a water structure using GIS-enabled network analysis. Freely available population and address point data were used to calculate the number of residents at risk. Three scenarios of time required for each evacuation activity were determined using the PERT method, and the time required for evacuation was determined using a Gantt chart. The approach proposed in the paper is suitable for obtaining relatively quick results that can be taken into account when preparing for crisis events. The results of the case study proved that the evacuation can be carried out in the necessary time, but revealed possible shortcomings of the proposed approach. These shortcomings are discussed along with possible alternative solutions and other factors influencing the evacuation planning process.